Slipper's constituents say they no longer support him

Date: December 15 2012

Lenore Taylor

THE sexual harassment claim against the former speaker Peter Slipper has been thrown out of court but his constituents still appear intent upon throwing him out of Parliament - with just 2.7 per cent of voters in his Queensland electorate saying they supported him.

A ReachTEL phone poll of 661 voters, conducted for Fairfax Media on the night after Justice Rares's scathing federal court judgment in which he found the sexual harassment claims against Mr Slipper had been a politically motivated abuse of process, suggests voters in the seat of Fisher have already made up their minds about their sitting member.

Seventy-five per cent of those polled said they had an ''unfavourable'' opinion of Mr Slipper, who has held the seat for 19 years.

A neutral view was held by 16.9 per cent of respondents and only 6.9 per cent had a favourable opinion. More than 37 per cent said they were ''less likely'' to vote for the former Liberal National Party, now independent, MP as a result of the case being thrown out, with only 17.9 per cent saying the decision made them more likely to vote for him.

Despite the criticism of the pre-selected LNP candidate, Mal Brough, in the judgment - it said he had acted ''in combination'' with Mr Slipper's former staffer James Ashby in order to advance his own political interests - the former Howard government minister appears set for an easy victory in next year's election if he remains a candidate.

He would receive votes from 48.4 per cent of those polled, with 21.2 per cent saying they would support Labor's candidate.

But only 41.8 per cent said they had a favourable opinion of Mr Brough and 37.7 per cent said Mr Brough's involvement in the Ashby case had made him less likely to win their support.

Since the phone poll was taken Labor has stepped up calls for Mr Brough to be disendorsed, but the Coalition Leader, Tony Abbott, is sticking by him.

''Mal Brough was perfectly properly endorsed by the Liberal National Party. He's been quite transparent and upfront about his involvement,'' Mr Abbott said from London.

But Mr Abbott's parliamentary secretary, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, said Mr Brough ''had some questions to answer'' about the role he played in advising Mr Ashby before he lodged his claim.

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said: ''Mr Brough has been involved in using sexual harassment claims as a political tool. In standing by Mr Brough, Mr Abbott is standing by conduct like that.''

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